NCAA Football 14 - PlayStation 3https://www.gameinformer.com/games/ncaa_football_14/b/ps3/atom.aspxCommunity Server2013-04-03T11:00:00ZBolstering Its Blue-Chip Prospects?/games/ncaa_football_14/b/ps3/archive/2013/05/28/bolstering-its-blue_2D00_chip-prospects.aspx2013-05-28T13:00:00Z2013-05-28T13:00:00Z<p><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/electronic-arts2013/ncaa14/ncaadynasty5.28610.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>The phone call has been the centerpiece of NCAA&#39;s recruiting
system since 2008, but series producer Ben Haumiller says it was never really
meant to be that way. The mechanic was originally supposed to be a first step
in a larger process, but somewhere along the way developer EA Tiburon became unwittingly
more and more beholden to it. Recalling a realization the team had, Haumiller says,
&quot;We&#39;re not getting new features in dynasty because we&#39;re trying to recreate
this phone call thing. Let&#39;s just cut this cord right now.&quot;</p>
<p>The excising of the recruiting phone call is just the start
of changes for the process in NCAA 14. In its place is a more streamlined
system that also puts more power in the hands of coaches and their staff. </p>
<p>Teams have a bank of points they can spend on recruiting
players every week, with a per-player point limit for that week. You can tweak
how many points you allocate to each player from week to week, or you can set
it once and then let it run automatically. The new system also gives you a last-ditch
attempt to sway potential players in the offseason, where you get a large pool
of points and no restriction on how many of them you can allocate to a player.</p>
<p>Schools&#39; grades in areas like TV exposure, academics, and conference
prestige are just as important, and these are applied automatically as bonus
points every week. Dynamic pitches also remain. If your grade as a championship
contender fluctuates during the season, the bonus points applied from that
pitch will also change. Dynamic pitches also come into play with player
dealbreakers. These prevent you from recruiting a player because your team
doesn&#39;t have a good enough grade in a particular category important to him.
Change that grade and you can now try and recruit the player. On the other
hand, should you fall below his dealbreaker mid-season, you can still recruit
him; you just won&#39;t get any bonus points from that dynamic pitch.</p>
<p>Although you&#39;re more removed from recruiting players since
you don&#39;t call them anymore, NCAA 14 gives you more influence over the process
than ever before thanks to coach skills. Coaches and their staff get XP points
for in-game accomplishments and recruiting success, and head coaches can spent
these on a skill tree with two different branches: recruiting and game
management. The former gives you more recruiting points depending on which week
in the season you&#39;re in, or it could help make a player instantly commit to
your school or break up a player&#39;s dealbreaker on your school. Game management
skills include removing an opponent&#39;s home field advantage (no more squiggly
lines pre-snap), the ability to kill the ice the kicker effect, and more.</p>
<p>Coordinators also have their own skills that give players&#39;
per-game ratings boosts depending on that coordinator&#39;s expertise, such as
granting defensive backs better coverage skills. You can respec any skills
you&#39;ve bought as a coach or a coordinator at the end of the season.</p>
<p>NCAA 14 not only gives you more influence as a coach, but
your objectives are also judged more fairly by the powers that be. Your
contract is now judged on a more macro level. The game tracks a program over a larger
swath of time, averaging out the number of wins in the past four years to
calculate your minimum expectation. Thus, small schools need fewer wins to
maintain or raise that school&#39;s prestige, while big-time programs need more to
sustain it and move forward.</p>
<p>Given how much time you spend recruiting during a season,
NCAA 14&#39;s changes to the system as a whole, on paper, sound like the best of
both worlds &ndash; removing some of the tedium while also expanding your power and
influence as a coach. With these kinds of tools at your disposal, building your
dynasty should be easier than ever.</p>
<p>NCAA Football 14 comes out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on July 9. For more on the game&#39;s inclusion of the Ultimate Team mode, <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/ncaa_football_14/b/xbox360/archive/2013/05/15/the-ultimate-college-football-team.aspx">check out this preview</a>. You can also check out its <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/ncaa_football_14/b/xbox360/archive/2013/04/03/ncaa-14-debuts-the-next-iteration-of-the-infinity-engine.aspx">new gameplay features</a> with the Infinity Engine.</p>
<p><strong>The Closer skill gives you a recruiting edge at the end of the season.</strong></p>
<p><strong><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/electronic-arts2013/ncaa14/ncaadynasty5.28extra.jpg" alt="" /><br /></strong></p>
<div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2891724" width="1" height="1">GIKatohttps://www.gameinformer.com/members/GIKato/default.aspxThe Ultimate College Football Team/games/ncaa_football_14/b/ps3/archive/2013/05/15/the-ultimate-college-football-team.aspx2013-05-15T13:00:00Z2013-05-15T13:00:00Z<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/electronic-arts2013/ncaa14/ut/ut5.15610.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<p>EA Sports&#39; Ultimate Team mode is finally coming to NCAA, and
thankfully your deck won&#39;t be filled with QB #6 and HB #23, but with real-life
football players.</p>
<p>In the Ultimate Team mode, you get a starter pack of player
cards with which you play real games with in order to earn coins to buy more
packs. By buying packs and competing in auctions to win specific player cards,
you build up your roster with better and better players to compete against
others online.</p>
<p>The NCAA franchise as a whole is unable to feature real
college players (hence the anonymous player numbers that are used), but NCAA
14&#39;s Ultimate Team mode has found a way around this and features real-life
football players. Using its existing NFLPA license, developer EA Tiburon is
creating Ultimate Team cards for all active NFL players on their college teams &ndash; that&#39;s over 1,400 players at the game&#39;s launch. It&#39;s like the worlds biggest college all-star alumni
game featuring everybody from current NFL players like Russell Wilson to former
college greats not currently in the pros such as Andre Ware. There is also a
multitude of guys in between &ndash; those whom you may recognize because they
were your school&#39;s campus heroes even though they haven&#39;t made it big in the
NFL.</p>
<p>Following the mode&#39;s card-collecting philosophy, there will
be multiple versions of some players if they&#39;ve transferred schools in their
college career, played multiple positions, or different cards for a player&#39;s
junior and senior seasons. Like the Ultimate Team mode in other games, NCAA 14
will also encourage collecting as many cards as you can with bonuses for
getting all the cards in a particular collection set, such as all the Heisman
Trophy winners, for example. EA says that it hopes to ultimately have over 2,500 player cards in the mode.</p>
<p>You can play games by either taking on solo, offline
challenges (perhaps based on events such as a top game in the current season, a
bowl game last year, etc.) as well as online via Head-to-Head Seasons. This
mode, started by the FIFA soccer franchise, creates 10-game seasons and eight
tiered divisions of play. You start out at the bottom division and work you way
up via promotion while trying to avoid getting knocked down a division through
relegation. NCAA 14 adds a four-round playoff structure that requires you to
win at least five games in order to qualify (eight victories gets you a first
round bye).</p>
<p>Unlike some of the other Ultimate Team modes in EA Sports
titles, NCAA 14&#39;s version does not feature chemistry between players, coaches, mobile/browser
support, or consumable cards related to stat increases. There will, however, be
customary &quot;contract&quot; extensions that let you continue to use a card and unspecified player items (no mention of
whether these are earned or will cost money) that can be used to help out your
team. The coin cost for different levels of card packs and any info on EA
Tickets (which can be bought with real money and put towards card packs) has
not been revealed yet.</p>
<p>NCAA 14&#39;s version of Ultimate Team doesn&#39;t feature all the
bells and whistles the mode has enjoyed in other EA Sports titles, but college
football fans should find no problem getting excited about this addictive mode.</p>
<p>For more on NCAA 14, check out this preview on the game&#39;s <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/ncaa_football_14/b/xbox360/archive/2013/04/03/ncaa-14-debuts-the-next-iteration-of-the-infinity-engine.aspx">gameplay</a>&nbsp;and this one on its&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/ncaa_football_14/b/xbox360/archive/2013/04/18/ncaa-14-presentation-details-and-new-screens.aspx">presentation</a>.</p>
<p><i>Note: The original version of this preview mentioned 2,500+ players in the mode. EA Sports has since clarified that the mode will have over 1,400 players at launch, and that 2,500+ is the goal going forward. The text has been modified to reflect this distinction.</i></p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2851113" width="1" height="1">GIKatohttps://www.gameinformer.com/members/GIKato/default.aspxNCAA 14 Presentation Details & New Screens/games/ncaa_football_14/b/ps3/archive/2013/04/18/ncaa-14-presentation-details-and-new-screens.aspx2013-04-18T15:15:00Z2013-04-18T15:15:00Z<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/electronic-arts2013/ncaa14/ncaa144.18610.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<p>As part of developer EA Tiburon&#39;s playbook series, today&#39;s reveal focuses on NCAA 14&#39;s presentation package and how it&#39;s going to streamline the user experience.</p>
<p>NCAA 13 was filled with college-atmosphere moments like mascots and traditional team-specific aspects, but the developers felt like it took up too much of gamers&#39; time. If gamers skip through the pre-game intros, for instance, what was the point? Using that as a basis, NCAA 14 condenses its cutscenes but preserves all the flavor.</p>
<p>In its own way, there is actually more to see &ndash; it&#39;s just that it will be offered in shorter chunks. There are over 500 on-field &quot;vignettes&quot; (including some with more player chatter), more surfacing of stats, and a halftime show with Rece Davis and David Pollack talking about what&#39;s happened and what the teams need to do going forward.</p>
<p>The commentary in general has received an uplift, with more commentary breakdowns analyzing stats of multiple past drives.</p>
<p>Sticking with the fast and easy theme, getting in and out of menus will be easier with the new UI. It uses big panels for the main menu selections &ndash; moving away from the sweeping, ESPN TV-inspired menus of NCAA 13. Loading screens will also utilize time better by showing you stats and info while you wait.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, NCAA 14 will continue to try and keep up with all the crazy uniforms (including bigger and more frequent updates), and this year a highlight of players&#39; uniforms is the representation of base layers and gloves.</p>
<p>The game now includes neutral site games like the Cowboys Kickoff Classic between LSU and TCU or Illinois vs. University of Washington at Soldier Field. NCAA 14 will also feature The White Stripes&#39; &quot;Seven Nation Army&quot; and Kemkraft 400&#39;s &quot;Zombie Nation.&quot;</p>
<p>NCAA Football 14 comes out on July 9 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For more on the title&#39;s gameplay, as well as more screens and a trailer, head over to our <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/ncaa_football_14/b/xbox360/archive/2013/04/03/ncaa-14-debuts-the-next-iteration-of-the-infinity-engine.aspx">previous preview</a>.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2755425" width="1" height="1">GIKatohttps://www.gameinformer.com/members/GIKato/default.aspxNCAA 14 Debuts The Next Iteration Of The Infinity Engine/games/ncaa_football_14/b/ps3/archive/2013/04/03/ncaa-14-debuts-the-next-iteration-of-the-infinity-engine.aspx2013-04-03T16:00:00Z2013-04-03T16:00:00Z<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/electronic-arts2013/ncaa14/ncaa144.3610.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<p>Last year, NCAA overhauled its passing game. The gameplay
makeover continues in NCAA Football 14, due out in July for the PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360. The first reveal for the game details developer EA Tiburon&#39;s focus
on improving Madden&#39;s Infinity Engine, as well as some unique college football
additions.</p>
<p>EA Tiburon decided not to integrate the Infinity Engine into
NCAA 13. The physics engine used in Madden NFL 13 (which came out months after
NCAA 13) aimed to realistically replicate hits to multiple parts of the body,
but ended up being inconsistent and unsatisfactory. With the benefit of more
time with the engine, EA Tiburon feels the engine has moved forward and is
capable of more nuances. Impacts such as stiff arms, hit stick tackles, and
dive tackles now jar the ball carrier appropriately. The team says it is also
cleaning up the engine&#39;s previous failings (such as players flopping around on
the ground due to minor contact) and not just heaping on features it can&#39;t
handle. We&#39;ll have to wait until we get our hands on a build of the game before
we can get a judge on how the engine is progressing.</p>
<p>More work on player movement is also planned for everything
for better direction changing (firm foot planting making for less swerving
while running) to active stumble recovery. Hitting back on the right stick will
help the runner regain his balance if he&#39;s tripped up. Finally, EA has
developed a new acceleration system. You can still use the right trigger for a
quick burst, but players naturally ramp up to their top-end speed on their own.</p>
<p>While these changes are certainly welcome, fans of the
college game should be heartened to hear that EA Tiburon is also tweaking how
the option works in NCAA 14. Twenty new option pitches have been added to try
and keep up with the play&#39;s prevalence in modern playbooks for so many different
teams.</p>
<p>Instead of just throwing in a bunch of new variations of the
option, EA Tiburon is re-working its blocking logic as well as runner&#39;s motions
through traffic at the line of scrimmage. Offensive linemen now try to prioritize
defenders better as well as execute different blocking schemes like double
teams and zone blocks. If they clear the line of scrimmage they also fire out
to the second level more effectively. Ball carriers, meanwhile, should no
longer run into the backs of their linemen, but instead pause with their hands on
the backs of their teammates while a hole develops. If executed properly, these
additions should be a big boon for the franchise, which has struggled with
these elements in the past.</p>
<p>To help you execute the option, viewing the play at the line
of scrimmage, the game highlights which defensive player you should read and
take cues off of. While this may sound like a dead giveaway in favor of the
offense, gamers still have to execute after the ball is hiked to successfully fool
the defense with the option. EA is also integrating videos and hands-on tutorials
for the option and NCAA 14&#39;s other new features.</p>
<p>Stay tuned for more on NCAA 14 on April 18 when the
changes to the game&#39;s presentation package are discussed.</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this media)</p>
<p><strong><i>With more than 20 new option pitches, a lot of work has to be done to get this play right</i></strong></p>
<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/electronic-arts2013/ncaa14/ncaa144.3extra.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2702683" width="1" height="1">GIKatohttps://www.gameinformer.com/members/GIKato/default.aspx